CloudBlazers Meetup recap: Managing containers in the enterprise

Finishing up an impactful meetup last week, we were honored to host the Cloud Blazers Meetup Group. With a focus on how containers can be used within the enterprise for both IT and developers, we kicked off the discussion and heard thoughts from Perspica, Google and Rackspace.

Alberto Arias Maestro, ElasticBox

A brief overview of ElasticKube and how we provide management capabilities on top of Kubernetes clusters. The demo showed how IT can manage user permissions and deploy containerized applications from a catalog of apps. We showed insights for running an application that can be viewed in the dashboard.

Phil Wittrock, Google

Shared the direction and focus of Kubernetes to solve challenges using containers in IT and development. He showed the core capabilities, feedback from customers and how it can be implemented across a wide range of cloud platforms and technologies. The demo was very in-depth and gave attendees a detailed walkthrough of how to provision and manage a Kubernetes cluster as well as considerations for various configurations that users might have in your own environment.

JF Huard, Perspica

With a focus throughout the meetup on cloud infrastructure and containers, JF offered a balanced perspective on the consideration for monitoring. Post-deployment and ongoing management with real-time insights, alarms and predictive analytics often helps to understand the requirements for running a production quality application in a container. The demo covered a brief overview of the dashboard and reporting capability for an application.

Michael Burns, Rackspace

As a leader for the Rackspace DevOps team, Michael provided candid thoughts on how IT and developers should think about building agile applications and take advantage of containers. Though there are a number of monolithic legacy applications, moving towards multi-tier applications and services that enable you to isolate problems and resolve issues is far more valuable over time. Containers provide the level of flexibility and speed required to achieve business value of services provided back to the enterprise. Very insightful.

After hearing from each of the speakers and their approach to containers, we wrapped up with a panel discussion which allowed attendees to present their challenges with containers and get feedback from the speakers. From learning about how to deal with legacy applications to understanding the pros and cons of containers allowed attendees to walk away with enough background to research the appropriate solutions for their respective environments.

Follow us on Twitter @ElasticKube and check out our guest company’s web pages to learn more. Look out for more meetups soon.